San Diego 2017

Oh my lands.  

With so much going on this year, I completely spaced blogging our San Diego trip.

It has definitely been a whirlwind of a year, and it's barely June!

We started January off with a trip to Disneyland ,

came home to celebrate Kameryn's 8th birthday, 

and then basically turned right around to fly to San Diego for a week.

Poor Jerm wound up with a virus before leaving, and we kept praying it'd get better.

No such luck. 

He was miserable for most of our trip, right up until we made a stop at Urgent Care.

A sinus and ear infection, plus bronchitis diagnosis meant a strong dose of antibiotics.

And he was feeling much better juuuuuuust as it was time to head home.

But there were many great memories made just the same.

The trip was actually a work conference for Jeremy,

so he was tied up for several hours each day, which meant some exploring for us girls.

Our hotel opened up RIGHT onto Seaport Village ~ an adorable collection of boutiques and restaurants sure to keep us busy for DAYS.

We found THE most adorable cupcakery: Frost Me Cupcakes

They were featured on The Cupcake Wars ~

So the girls *obviously* had to try them out.

Then it was off to have fortunes read by the Zoltar Machine :)

There was plenty of picture taking.

And we even set sail on "The Seal":

A bus that transforms to a boat.

We toured the city, and then plopped right into the water for a sea tour.

This little miss LOVED the sights.

And these guys were pretty adorable, soaking up the rays.

I highly recommend this tour if you are in the San Diego area.

We were blessed with Captain: Liz and First Mate: Ross as our guide.

Ross was PHENOMENAL.

Truly, it was money well spent!

And then back to Seaport Village we went;

for Ice Cream treats, of course!

For five girls who love to shop, it was pretty much paradise.

We browsed the waterfront a little more,

Documented with a few more photographs.

Then it was time to head home.

And now we're ready to go back! ;)

Smarties

Wow. I'm impressed. You smarties. Do y'all know me, or what?

While shoes and clothes are always fun, {and I could never turn down chocolate}. And yes, Colleen, a new baby would be more exciting for us than anything we could ever dream of buying at the store. Those things were not on the shopping list yesterday ;)

Nope.

But I did have the go ahead to get my new camera!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!

I have been waiting {and saving} a long time for this, and I could not have been more excited. And Sierra, my photography partner {wink}, was just as excited.

I'm a little bit in love right now.

~~~~~~~~~~

{Thanks so much for all the guesses!}

Take A Guess

We're going birthday party shopping today {Sierra turns 8 on Friday!}, and while we're out I get to pick up a little something for myself.

I may be a tad excited about it

Any guesses as to what it is? ;)

Personal Shopper

I'm sorry, but is she the cutest little shopper you've ever seen?

I finally took Sierra in to the doctor today. She's had a cold {we all have, actually} for the last week or so, and it was getting worse. When she started complaining of headaches and it hurting under her eyes and around her nose, I knew it was time to go in.

Turns out she has a sinus infection, poor thing. So we headed to the pharmacy to pick up a prescription plus other odds and ends we needed. Cough drops, lip balm, zinc pops. You know, necessities for the sickies.

Kam did our shopping for us.

She's a customer-in-training, don'tchaknow.

Wordless Wednesday ~ Trip to the Mall

Wordless Wednesday ~ Day Out With Mama

Go ahead, give me the stink eye. You know you want to . . .

The other day we made a trip into town to pick up some groceries,

a birthday present, card for a baby shower,

a few odds and ends for our next camping trip,

waffle iron, you know, the basics.

These days I feel very much like I'm trying to function on half a brain.

I can't remember anything.

If there is something I need to do or buy,

I had better be writing it down on a list, or forget it!

Literally.

This also goes for my ability to take notice of my surroundings.

Yeah, not so much.

I am usually so caught up in making sure that Kam is comfortable,

Sierra and Makenna are having a good time and behaving,

all while mentally trying to go through the million items on my to-do list.

Summer VACATION. Ha!

There hasn't been anything relaxing about it so far.

So . . . .

There I was, pulling up to the check-out stand.

I had found everything on my list.

Kam was still in a good mood.

Kenners and Sierra were behaving

AND being helpful.

I start unloading the cart. The very full cart.

Once I have everything out, the cheker politely says these dreaded words:

Just so that you know, this is an express lane.

I glance around to find the big "15 items or Less" sign.

Then I notice it. On top of the lane number on a little sign.

Yep. That's right.

The lane that I pulled up to, the lane without any customers

{at first},

was in fact an EXPRESS LANE.

For those with LESS than 15 items.

I probably had 150 items!

Of course the second everything is up on the belt,

42 older ladies with 15 items or less in their baskets form a line behind me.

All the while giving me the dreaded stink eye.

Go ahead, you know you want to join them.

Who Knew . . .

. . . that this little pumpkin, this sweet, peaceful-looking sugarplum (look at those adorable little tootsies! Ooops, getting off track) could make such a racket! I mean, I know all about the set of lungs on Kameryn. She spends many an evening giving those lungs quite the exercise when she can't get settled in for the night. But typically we're easy-going during daylight hours. Not so yesterday.

We've ventured out before, just the four of us, though not often. Usually my mom tags along. But since Mom's birthday is Sunday, and the purpose of the outing was to pick out a gift for her, we had to leave her behind ;) We waited until Kam was good and sleepy, loaded her up, and away we went. By the time we got to town, she was awake. A little background info, in case you couldn't already tell, Kam is not content to hang out in her car seat. She's not content to hang out, period. She doesn't like the swing or the bouncy seat. The only way you can get her to stay in the carseat is if she is asleep (and that happens less and less as she gets a little older).

No problem, she'll surely drift back to dreamland. All the while, Sierra and Makenna had chosen the "big cart". You know the one? It has two plastic seats attached to the already large cart. It's impossible to maneuver, especially with a four year old and six year old occupying the seats. It's like driving a bus, I tell you. Normally I stay as far away from those carts as possible, but apparently I was feeling overly optimistic yesterday. So, here I am driving the bus down the (very narrow) aisles while Kameryn proceeds to scream. and scream. and scream. No problem, you say, just whip out your sling and be on your way. I do a quick search of the diaper bag and find no sling. Nope, it had been taken out of the bag, and hadn't been put away (shame, shame on me). Good news, though, I do find my brand new freehand mei-tai. Surely she will love this pouch, snuggle right up, and go back to sleep. It looks so inviting and comfy. I put it on (this takes a few minutes as I'm new to the contraption) Um, no. No, she doesn't love it. No she doesn't snuggle right up and go back to sleep. She proceeds to scream, even louder than before. By this time she's gotten herself quite worked up, and I have yet to find even a card for my mom, let alone some of the groceries we stopped there for in the first place! It became clear that the carrier was out of the question (though I'd like to clarify that I *do* love it, and know that she will too ~ once she's a bit older), the car seat was out of the question. The only thing left to do was hold her. Of course, she's still a little wiggly, and doesn't have complete head control (she's only 11 weeks, 6 weeks if you consider she was born 5 weeks early). AND have you forgotten, I'm driving the bus?

It was an absolute miracle that we made it out of the store only a little worse for wear. Kam stopped the crying once I held her ~ sans mei-tai, Sierra helped me steer the massive cart, and by the time we made it to our next stop (no, we didn't go running home in fear), Kam was back to her easy-going self, hallelujah! We even managed to get a few groceries home, AND find some extra cool stuff for Mom. And, of course, Kam slept the rest of the afternoon (partly in the carseat, wouldn't ya know!)

Next time, it's Etsy. I found this and this for Mom on Etsy for Christmas. Need.to.be.better.prepared. (Repeat this mantra to myself)